Assemblies having a spray nozzle such as pressure washers, spray wands, spray lances, and the like are used for delivering a pressurized fluid stream to many different surfaces. For example, a spray wand connected to a pressure washer assembly may be used for cleaning a deck, a driveway, a roof, siding on a house, and the like. The pressure washer assembly may be supplied with water from a standard type outlet such as a garden hose. After pressurizing the water, the pressure washer assembly supplies the pressurized water stream to a spray wand which expels the pressurized water stream from a spray nozzle, delivering the pressurized water stream to a surface such as a deck for cleaning. Typically, the spray wand may include a gun having a trigger for regulating the flow of the pressurized water stream.
The use of a pressure washer assembly for the safe, effective, and even cleaning of different surfaces may require that the spray nozzle be held at varying distances from the different surfaces being cleaned. For example, during the course of a typical workday, a user may use a pressure washer assembly to clean stone, concrete, brick, and wood. While the spray nozzle of the pressure washer assembly may be held much closer to the stone, concrete, and brick, when cleaning the wood surface, the spray nozzle must be held farther away. If a proper distance from the wood is not maintained, the surface of the wood may splinter, damaging the wood and causing it to lose finish. Also, if a relatively constant distance is not maintained throughout the course of cleaning a surface, an uneven surface clean may result. Achieving an even surface clean may become increasingly difficult over the course of a typical workday, as a user of a pressure washer assembly may experience fatigue from swinging a spray wand, spray lance, or the like back and forth while attempting to maintain a relatively constant distance from a surface being cleaned.
For instance, a user cleaning a wooden deck with a spray wand and a pressure washer assembly may typically swing the spray wand back and forth in an arc. At either side of the arc, the spray nozzle will be farther away from the wooden deck than at the center. The wood at the center of the arc, closest to the spray nozzle, may be damaged by the pressurized water stream, while the wood to either side of the arc may not be effectively cleaned, leaving a striped pattern visible on the surface of the deck. In addition, it may be impossible for a user of a spray wand to maintain a constant distance from a vertical surface when using a longer or extensible spray wand. In the case of cleaning wooden siding on a house, the tiring motion of holding the spray wand aloft while swinging it back and forth to clean the siding may prevent a user from keeping the spray nozzle at a safe and effective distance from the siding, damaging the wooden siding and leaving an uneven clean.
To address the problem of maintaining an even distance from a surface and lessening user fatigue, surface cleaners have been used for providing a more even finish and for maintaining a constant distance from the spray nozzle to the surface being cleaned. Typically these surface cleaners have included a spray wand fixed at some angle and connected to a skirt, having a rotating set of nozzles beneath the skirt and a set of wheels attached to the outside of the skirt. However, these surface cleaners do not allow for the convenient adjustment of the distance from a spray nozzle to the surface, and the wheels on the side of the skirt make the footprint of the surface cleaner large and unwieldy for cleaning corners or tight spaces. Additionally, the size and weight of such a surface cleaner, in combination with the fixed angle of the spray wand attached to it, do not allow it to be used for cleaning vertical surfaces.